Hillary Clinton’s Long History of Hiding Documents

It doesn’t matter.

That’s what some in the media have insisted about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to use her own private server and email address to avoid public scrutiny for her entire tenure. David Brock, wild-haired henchman for Hillary Clinton at the Clinton-backed Media Matters for America, appeared on MSNBC today to play defense. He demanded that The New York Times retract their story on Hillary’s hidden emails. “There is no violation of law here, Joe, that I can see whatsoever,” Brock insisted. That prompted even MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski to wonder aloud, “Oh, my God. I’m not sure what planet I’m on right now.”

Probably the same planet, Mika, where the media have ignored Hillary Clinton’s obstructions and dissemblance for decades. Hillary Clinton has a long and inglorious history of alleged document tampering and questionable legal maneuverings. Here are some of her greatest hits:

Hillary’s “Thwarted Record Requests.” On Wednesday, the Times reported that Clinton used her private email address to avoid turning over documents to Congressional committees investigating the Benghazi, Libya terror attack of September 11, 2012. According to the Times, “It was one of several instances in which records requests sent to the State Department, which had no access to Mrs. Clinton’s emails, came up empty.” The State Department did the same routine with regard to a Freedom of Information Act request asking for correspondence between Hillary and former political hit man Sidney Blumenthal; in 2010, the AP said its FOIA requests had gone unanswered by the State Department on the same grounds; the same holds true with regard to FOIA requests from conservative group Citizens United.

Hillary’s First Emailgate. According to Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, Hillary’s top woman, Cheryl Mills – you remember her from Benghazi – “helped orchestrate the cover-up of a major scandal, often referred to as ‘Email-gate.’” Over the course of years, the Clinton Administration allegedly withheld some 1.8 million email communications from Judicial Watch’s attorneys, as well as federal investigators and Congress. Judicial Watch says that when a White House computer contractor attempted to reveal the emails, White House officials “instructed her to keep her mouth shut about the hidden e-mail or face dismissal and jail time.”

Hillary’s Missing Whitewater Documents. In 1996, a special Senate Whitewater committee released a report from the FBI demonstrating that documents sought in the Whitewater investigation had been found in the personal Clinton quarters of the White House. The First Lady’s fingerprints were on them. The documents had gone mysteriously missing for two years. Mark Fabiani, special White House counsel, immediately stated that there was no problem, according to the Times: “He added that she had testified under oath that she had nothing to do with the documents during the two years they were missing and did not know how they ended up in the family quarters.” Hillary remains the only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI. Those weren’t the only missing Whitewater documents later found in the Clinton White House. Rose Law billing records were found years after being sought “in the storage area in the third-floor private residence at the White House where unsolicited gifts to the President and First Lady are stored before being sorted and catalogued.”

Hillary’s Missing Travelgate Documents. In 1996, just before the Whitewater documents emerged – literally the day before – a two-year-old memo emerged, according to The New York Times, showing that Hillary “had played a far greater role in the dismissal of employees of the White House travel office than the Administration has acknowledged.” Oops.

Hillary’s “Unethical Practices” During Watergate.According to Democrat Jerry Zeifman, Hillary “engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules” designed to keep Nixon in office long enough to guarantee a Democratic presidential victory in 1976. Zeifman said that Clinton – then Hillary Rodham — had worked with Teddy Kennedy’s political strategist. More specifically, Zeifman accused Rodham of writing a fraudulent legal brief and grabbing public documents. Zeifman fired her, and later claimed that he wished he had reported her to the Bar.

Hillary has a long history of this behavior. But that won’t stop her from moving forward. The media are less interested in governmental transparency than in picking the next president – and making sure the next president represents the hard, corrupt left.